It was a cunning plan that even Baldrick could not have imagined, but Tony Robinson is knighted in the Queen's Birthday Honours List - while his boss Blackadder, Rowan Atkinson, becomes a CBE.

Sir Tony Robinson, who received the knighthood for public and political service, vowed: "I pledge that from this day on I'll slaughter all unruly dragons, and rescue any damsels in distress who request my help."

Mr Atkinson said of his CBE: "It came as a genuine surprise and is a great honour."

The appearance of Mr Bean at the Olympics Opening Ceremony may be the last time we see him for a long while.

Rowan Atkinson has revealed in an interview with the Daily Telegraph that "the stuff that has been most commercially successful for me - basically quite physical, quite childish - I increasingly feel I'm going to do a lot less of."

"I also think someone in their 50s being childlike becomes a little sad. You've got to be careful."

He is to take the lead, serious, role in Quartermaine's Terms in the West End.